The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH the Supreme Court has approved the appointment of provisional liquidators to ensure that Baha Mar’s resources are not depleted, the resort’s Bahamian workers are still likely to be paid until the $21m set aside by the Christie administration for salaries runs out, according to Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson.

However, she said, she could not guarantee this because the decision would be up to the court appointed liquidators.

The court order spelling out the limited powers of the provisional liquidators has not yet been disclosed.

However, Mrs Maynard-Gibson said: “The provisional liquidator has been appointed to prevent the dissipation of the assets of Baha Mar and as a provisional liquidator it is their responsibility to take control of all the assets to prevent the dissipation. We expect the provisional liquidator, if it hasn’t done so already, to imminently ask the government to transfer the balance of that money as an asset of Baha Mar and of course when the request is made the money will be transferred and we also expect that the provisional liquidator will pay employees from those funds. “We can’t give a guarantee because of course it’s the decision of the provisional liquidator and not of the government, but certainly when asked that is our position and we support that position.”

The attorney general couldn’t say how much of the $21m owed Baha Mar is left. The government has been paying Baha Mar’s Bahamian employees since the work period ending July 3 out of the $21 million that it owes Baha Mar for the road work.

According to The Tribune’s estimates, the $21m should be able to pay workers for at least another month.

Mrs Maynard Gibson also defended the government yesterday against FNM allegations that it has poorly handled the Baha Mar debacle.

After Supreme Court Justice Ian Winder delivered his ruling approving the appointment of provisional liquidators to oversee Baha Mar’s affairs, former Attorney General Carl Bethel said the decision “figuratively places a loaded gun to the head of the developer.”

Reacting to this, Mrs Maynard-Gibson suggested his comments were irresponsible and stressed that the government has sought to ensure that Bahamian contractors could recover their investments.

“Remobilisation is the best chance for the contractors at the Baha Mar property to have the opportunity to be paid 100 cents on the dollar,” she said. “Remobilisation means that your outstanding sums would be paid. That’s very important. But it’s also important in that context to note that the restructuring plan that the developer has filed in Delaware does not contemplate the payment of 100 cents on the dollar. It contemplates 10 cents or so on the dollar and over five years. So again, the Bahamian contractors, this plan offers them the best opportunity to get 100 cents. There’s no guarantees for that, but the best opportunity for that is to get it done in the Bahamas, not Delaware.”

She added: “I’m very deeply concerned by what I see as a complete lack of patriotism by the FNM. First of all, I was really shocked to hear the former Attorney General Carl Bethel make such serious allegations about our Supreme Court putting a gun to (an) investor’s head. The court makes orders. You can speak about your disagreement with the order of the court and that’s what the appeals court is for.

“I believe it is very unseemly. It is egregious. It is very serious for someone, especially someone who held the office of the attorney general, to be saying those kinds of things. And I assure you, anyone who thinks this government has not been working in the interests of the Bahamian people needs to put their glasses on or they are deliberately trying to mischaracterise what the government is doing. Let me tell you, to file a plan of reorganization that does not contemplate contractors who are owned altogether $100m, and you want to pay them 10 cents on the dollar and we want to pay them 100 cents on the dollar and you saying the government bungled? You got to be joking.

“Do you know what it means to a man, a subcontractor who may have re-mortgaged his home to pursue a contract at Baha Mar? When the site is remobilised, he is going to be able to say to the bank, ‘the very premise of my loan, this business, I could pay the outstanding sums, I now have a obvious source of income, I could now resume payments.’ He gets relief. The many contractors on that site get that same relief. But 10 cents on the dollar and have to go to Delaware and prove his debt? No.”

Baha Mar filed for bankruptcy in a US court on June 29. In July, the government filed a winding up petition against the resort to have liquidators appointed.